Officials for the four-hospital California Pacific Medical Center have work to do with their neighbors if they want to build a 15-story, 555-bed hospital at the corner of Van Ness Avenue and Geary Boulevard.

Residents of the Tenderloin and Cathedral Hill were out in force this afternoon for the city Planning Commission’s hearing on the draft environmental impact report on the $2.5 billion project, which also includes major changes to St. Luke’s Hospital in the Mission District, the hospital’s California campus in Presidio Heights, the Pacific campus in Pacific Heights and Davies Medical Center in the Duboce Triangle.

While the commission won’t take any action until a final environmental report is completed months from now, there are plenty of concerns about the effects the hospital plan will have on both the surrounding neighborhoods and the city as a whole.

Members of the Cathedral Hill Neighbors Association complained that the hospital could bring traffic to a standstill on already congested Van Ness Avenue, while Tenderloin residents argued that construction of the state-of-the-art facility would provide plenty of problems for their neighborhood without providing any benefits.

Speaker after speaker complained that the new hospital would not provide needed health care for the many low-income people in the area. Closing the California campus hospital, changing the Pacific campus hospital into an out-patient only facility and replacing St. Luke’s Hospital with a much small facility would also force many people to travel farther, often by bus, for heath care, they argued.

The new hospital won’t “benefit anyone but the rich,” said Eloise Jones, a Tenderloin resident. “I’m going to have to go to S.F. General because I’m poor.”

The hospital should be required to sign a community benefits agreement with the city to provide jobs, housing help and other benefits to the Tenderloin, speakers said.

Many of the speakers wore bright yellow “3A+” stickers, showing their support for a proposed alternative that would cut six stories and 155 beds from the proposed Cathedral Hill Hospital and expand St. Luke’s from the proposed 80-bed hospital to a 240-bed facility.

Hospital officials say the new hospital would provide a modern, seismically safe facility that would keep working even in worst the disaster. Much of the work on the various hospitals is needed to meet tougher earthquake safety standards.

A number of speakers argued that the project would provide much-needed construction jobs for local residents. They also said that any major changes to the project could make it tougher to meet the state’s seismic safety deadlines.

More than 100 people were expected to speak at the hearing, which extended into the evening. Written comments on the environmental report can be sent to the city planning department until Oct. 19.